


It Was the Apple Juice

by MercyGrim96



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Cute, M/M, Sad, sad but cute I promise, small references of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-03-12
Packaged: 2018-03-16 12:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3487664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercyGrim96/pseuds/MercyGrim96
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave Strider is just your average teenage boy, really popular at the local clubs that he DJ's. One night after a gig he happens to come across a troll, a very beat up troll, in the alley. He had no idea this guy would change his life forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> I had posted this on my tumblr a long time ago and a friend of mine had just recently asked about it, wondering where it was, so I posted it on here for them!

He was just walking down the street minding his own business, when they came out of nowhere. There were four of them, and they were big guys. They cornered him into an alley and shoved him against a brick wall.

They beat the boy mercilessly, and he just took it; didn’t even try to call for help, he knew it was pointless because he knew that no one cared. It had happened before, but never anything this bad. It used to be just name calling, but now instead of being called a ‘faggot’ he got punched in the gut.

They left him there, bleeding and in severe pain, curled up on the dirty ground.  
~~~

At the same time in that alley another boy just happened to be leaving his DJ gig. He was walking out the side door of the venue when he saw four men running away from something. His eyes turned in that direction and he saw a body lying crumpled on the ground. He immediately ran over to said boy.

"Hey man are you ok?" When he received no answer he tried to touch the guy.

Said boy, who Dave could now see was a troll, recoiled in fear and whimpered,”P-please I can’t take it anymore…s-stop.”

"Hey now don’t worry I’m not going to hurt you, I want to help; I swear. My name’s Dave, what’s yours?"

"K-Karkat…" he said quietly, turning a little to get a look at Dave. He had white blond hair and dark black shades on, he definitely wasn’t one of those guy from before.

"Well Karkat how about I take you home? I was just about to leave myself so I don’t mind."

The way Dave looked and acted made Karkat feel safe. For the first time in his life he felt he could trust someone besides his family.

"Sure that would be nice." He tried to sit up, but the sudden rush of pain in his chest made him curl back to the ground again.

"Here, let me help you." Dave picked Karkat up gently, bridal style, and carried him to his car. He was about to as Karkat where he lived, when he saw that the troll had fallen asleep.  
~~~

Karkat woke up in a strange bed. This wasn’t his room! He panicked for a second, but then remembered what had happened last night. He smiled at the memory of Dave, just as a man walked into the room. He looked a lot like Dave, same hair color, same slim build. This guy had different shades though.

"Hey sleepyhead glad to see you awake. We were pretty worried there for a while little dude. Well my name is Dirk, I’m Dave’s older bro. Now before you doze off again how ‘bout ya tell me your phone number, I’m sure that your family is worried sick." The guy, Dirk, said with a slight Texan drawl.

Karkat told him and Dirk left the room to let Karkat rest more.

He slept for another half-hour before the door opened again, this time another man walked in. He had dark hair and wore a pair of glasses. He spoke in a high pitched light British accent when he said,”Your brother is here to get you my good fellow.” Karkat started to get out of bed, and the British man helped him.”I’m Jake by the way, I know it’s not under very pleasant circumstances, but it's nice to meet you.” Karkat smiled at his pleasantries and let Jake help him out of the room.


	2. Chapter 2

~~~  
Kankri, Karkats older brother, was so glad to see him ok. He and his boyfriend Cronus had been up all night calling people and searching the streets for the boy. He was so relieved when he got the phone call that Karkat was safe.

"Karkat I am so glad that you are alive. You don’t know how worried I was." He saw the bruise already forming on the boys cheek and knew it had happened again."Thank you so much for looking after him." He said to Dirk, who was now sitting next to Jake on the couch.

"Aww no man don’t be thanking me, it was all my bro Dave." Dirk said pointing to his younger brother.

Kankri smiled at Dave,”Well then thank you.” Then he looked at Karkat,”Oh you poor thing! Come now let’s take you home and get you tucked into bed. Cronus will you take him to the car? I must properly thank these nice people.”

"Sure thing cheif, come on kiddo." Cronus helped Karkat out the door.

"We’ll for all your help and generosity I would like to invite you to dinner at our house."

"That would be very delightful," Jake said smiling.

"Well then, how does tommorrow night sound?"

"Sounds great."

"Alreight then see you then, maybe around sevenish?" Kankri started to walk out,"I’ll call you to tell you the address."

"Awesome, well until then," Jake replied waving as Kankri left.

~~~

Karkat was in bed for most of the next day and night. When the next day came around his bruises were a light yellow colour that stood out in strange contrast to his pale greyish skin. He was glad they didn’t aim for the face to much. He wanted to at least look a little nice for dinner that night. Dave was going to be there, and he had to admit that he had a slight crush on the guy…

He knew the Dave probably wasn’t gay, the guy looked to cool to be gay. But a guy could only dream right?

~~~

Dave was nervious, for the first time in his life Dave Strider was nervious. It was an hour until they were going to Karkats house. Dave was getting ready and all he could think about was Karkats cute sleeping face. Wait, what?! Cute, stop thinking that! He cluncked himself on the head. Why was he thinking that? He needed to have a chat with his bro.

"Bro, hey Bro! Where are you?" He called out, walking down the hall. He went into the living room only to find his bro's boyfriend, Jake, sitting on the couch, reading a book."Hey Jake ya seen my bro?"

"Oh Dirk stepped out for the moment. I told him that he had to go buy a nice shirt for tonight. Why, is there something on your mind?"

Jake was a good person to talk to, maybe he wound understand.”Well ya see it’s about Karkat…I kind of…”

"You like him, don’t you?"

"Yeah…but Jake I’m not gay, or at least I didn’t think I was…"

"Let me tell you a little story. I was never gay for anyone, not until Dirk. I wasn’t even sure of how it was happening or how I could possible feel this way, but I was sure of one thing, I liked Dirk. Now look at where we’ve come, happy as we can be. So give it a chance, even if you’re scared and don’t know what’s going on. You never know what might come of it."

"Yeah, you’re right, I shouldn’t overthink it. If I really do like him I should just go for it. Thanks for the advice Jake."

"Happy to help; and Dave, do remember to look nice tonight!"


	3. Chapter 3

~~~  
The dinner was great, and the adults were happily chatting, that left Karkat and Dave to their own devices.

Karkat showed Dave his room; he was kind of embarrassed to let Dave see the posters on his walls. Karkat was a sucker for romantic movies, so there were plenty of them all over. But Dave didn’t seem to care about that, he was only concerned with Karkat.

"How are you feeling?" Dave asked as they sat down on Karkats bed.

"Much better thanks to you. If it wasn’t for you, I might not be here right now." He responded, smiling at Dave. Dave liked Karkats smile it was cute. He didn’t realize that he was staring, when Karkat said," Dave are you staring at my face?"

Dave blushed lightly and said, “I just noticed the bruise on your cheek and it made me start to wonder; why did those guys beat you up?”

"Well ummm… I guess I can tell you because you seem to be ok with this topic, considering," he said gesturing to the door where in the next room the adults were talking. "You see…the thing is…I’m gay…"

At that Dave’s face lit up in understanding.

"It’s actually happened to me before, but never this badly…."

"Well if it makes you feel any better, I sort of know what you might be feeling. You see my brother went through the same thing."

"He did?"

"Yes but things got really bad before he found Jake. I remember one night he was out getting me some apple juice; I really love the stuff, when these guys just came out of nowhere. They beat him so badly that he almost… he almost didn’t live.” Karkat looked at Dave in astonishment. “One of the guys had a knife on him, and he…he stabbed Dirk in the chest. He almost hit a lung…on the way to the hospital Dirks heart stopped beating f-for thirty seconds, an-and when they started surgery they told me that he probably wouldn’t make it. But I knew my brother better than that, he pulled through, all for me.”

Dave didn’t realize that at some point he was crying, Striders never cried, man this was so uncool of him. Karkat gently wiped his tears away and Dave leaned into the touch of Karkats hand. Their eyes locked, Karkat could faintly see Dave's through his shades because they were so close, and they couldn’t look away. Karkat used his other hand to remove Dave’s shades, only to be met with the most beautiful and striking crimson eyes he had ever seen.

Karkat couldn’t look away he could only draw himself closer to those eyes. So close that their noses touched, and he could feels Dave’s shaky breath on his face.

Karkat couldn’t take it anymore, without thinking he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Dave’s.

Dave didn’t know how to react, so he just sort of froze.

Karkat pulled away in embarrassment. “Oh god I’m so fucking sorry! I…I didn’t mean to…”

At that moment Dave’s bro came to get him. Dave left with an awkward wave in Karkats direction as Karkat sat there, unsure of what to say to Dave, he was tongue-tied.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok this one took so long because I couldn't find the original chapter on my tumbler so I had to re-write a new one!

It was easy to assume that for the next few days Dave was the most confused about existence that he had ever been. He was questioning his entire life for the most part. He liked girls, right? That’s how it had always been. So why was he feeling this way? 

~~

Meanwhile Karkat was lying on his bed, “Stupid, so stupid. How could I be such a fucking idiot?” He cursed to himself as he stared at the ceiling. He had no idea how he was going to fix this. His phone buzzed next to him and he jumped slightly. Karkat picked it up, Dave had messaged him on his Pesterchum

TG: Hey Karkat…do you think we could maybe talk about what happened…  
CC: SURE…   
TG: I’m not mad at you or anything; you just caught me off guard. I really think we should talk in person about this  
TG: Are you free right now?  
CC: YEAH, WANT ME TO COME OVER TO YOUR HOUSE?  
TG: That’d be cool.  
CC: BE THERE SOON THEN

~~

This was the most nervous that Dave had ever felt in his life. He was waiting in his living room on the couch, foot tapping on the ground, as he stared at the front door, waiting for Karkat to knock. He had planned everything that he wanted to say as he waited, going over it in his head repeatedly.  
Lost in his own thoughts, the sudden knock on the door made him squeak. He jumped out of his seat and practically ran to the door, right before he opened it he applied his cool kid nature back to its rightful place. 

“Hey,” Karkat said in a nervous voice. Of course he was just as nervous as Dave, he had no idea what the guy wanted to say. Maybe he wanted to tell Karkat that they couldn’t hangout anymore because he was so grossed out by Karkat liking him.

“Hey,” Dave said back, he held the door open wider. “You can come in. My brother and his boyfriend aren’t home, so it’s just you and me.” Dave mentally smacked himself in the head, ‘stupid, stupid, why would you say that!’ 

Karkat walked in and went to sit down on the couch; Dave joined him after closing the door. “So what did you want to say?” Karkat asked apprehensively. 

“Well about the other day… You just kind of surprised me and I didn’t get to answer you because I had to leave, and it’s been killing me since then. I really didn’t mean to leave you hanging, and now I feel like jerk, and you probably hate me, but I like you and I don’t want you to hate me, and I feel bad for not talking to you for the past few days. And I-“

Karkat shushed him and smiled, “Geez Strider I had no idea you were a rambler, you just seemed to cool for that. I don’t hate you, and I do believe that in deciphering what you just blabbed out you just confessed to liking me. I can’t hate you if I like you back now can I? I mean I was the fuckass who kissed you first right?”

Dave stared at him through his shades, stunned.

Karkat waved his hand in Dave’s line of vision, “Um Dave, I believe this is the part of the conversation where you kiss me?”

Dave blushed and pulled Karkat close to him; he sealed the space between them and kissed him.

Karkat broke the kiss and laughed, “Now that’s how it should have happened.”

Dave smiled one of his rare smiles back. He was right; this was how it was supposed to be, him and Karkat, together.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is the lovely ending, I mean it get's sad, but I swear it ends happy!

Dave and Karkat decided to go on their first date that day, the classic dinner and a movie. On the way there all they did was happily chat as they held hands; but again it happened so fast. They came out of nowhere, and Karkat knew they were the same guys.

"Oh look at this guys the faggot found another faggot," said one of the guys and the rest of them laughed.

"Shut up and walk away," Dave said in a strong voice, stepping in front of Karkat, "We don’t want any trouble here."

The guy laughed, ”Well that’s too bad man, maybe I want some fucking trouble!” He and the other three laughed again.

In one stride the guys, all four of them, were on Dave, punching him and kicking him. Now Dave was an exceptional fighter, his Bro didn't teach him to be wimp after all, but with four big bulky guys coming at him all at once, in all different directions; well it was hard for him to hold his own completely. He managed to take three of them down, but he didn't know that the ring leader had a weapon, a flash of silver was all he caught in the peripheral of his vision before something collided with the right temple of his head, knocking him to the side as he fell from loss of balance. He hit the pavement faster than someone throwing a rock. The ring leader bolted as Karkat rushed to Dave's side. Karkat didn’t even have to think about it, he called the police on his cell and started screaming for help.

The rest of the guys, who were recovering for Dave's beat down, took off at the sound of the police sirens, and Karkat kneeled down and hugged Dave close to him, whispering soothing things to him. He checked Dave's pulse, still beating. Dave didn’t open his eyes though. He was alive, but motionless.

 

Three weeks had passed and Dave still wasn’t waking up. Karkat refused to leave his side, he just kept mumbling, ”Wake up you idiot,” over and over again.  
The doctors were getting skeptical, not thinking that he had a chance of waking up ever again. Karkat knew him better than that though; he knew that Dave was strong, that he would pull through for him. He had to he just had to.

~~~

It was the miracle of all miracles. Karkat’s birthday, and he was spending it next to Dave.

Towards the end of the day a nurse came in with some food for Karkat, and he noticed that instead of milk, he got apple juice. The nurse told him they were out of milk.

Karkat thanked the nurse, and cried his eyes out when she left. The apple juice, it was just too much of a reminder of Dave to him. When he finally found the composure to open the juice, he gasped in surprise and amazement and the sight in front of him. Dave’s eyes slowly began to open!

Karkat dropped the juice and cried out in happiness, calling for the nurses as he stroked Dave’s white blond hair and kissed his forehead. Dave smiled back and wiped Karkat’s tears away.

Karkat waited for them to remove the tubes and then the second they left the first thing he did was run up to Dave and kissed the hell out of him.

"Oh Gog you have no idea how fucking glad I am that you woke up. You know I can’t live without you, right?"

"Yeah Karbaby, I know. I can’t live without you either. I love you."  
Karkat’s eyes teared up again, ”I love you too Dave.”

~~~

It had been a few months since Dave had woken up and was at home. Karkat refused to leave his side; they even shared the same bed now.

Karkat told Kankri and Cronus that he loved them, but he loved Dave more. So at that point Jake and Kankri were talking about maybe find a nice three-bedroom house and all moving in together. After all Dave and Karkat were still teenagers and had to go back to school in the fall.

"Dave," Karkat said when they were snuggling on the couch watching a romantic movie, "I think I know what woke you up."

"And what was that babe?"

"The apple juice, call me crazy, but I really do."

Dave laughed, “Yeah you’re probably right. I do love apple juice.” Karkat laughed too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was all thanks to the apple juice hehe

**Author's Note:**

> If you see any spelling errors please tell me, this fic is really old and I haven't checked it in a while. 
> 
> (My Tumblr is mercygrim96 if you want to follow me, I post a lot of cute homestuck fanfics on there)


End file.
